Beverly Hills Wealth Management had an idea for a new comprehensive, open-architecture platform aimed at independent financial advisors. Intel Corp. had the technology to make it happen. So they joined forces to create Maestro, a one-stop, single sign-on system that lets advisors access multiple functions and service providers on one dashboard.
"Ours is a one-of-a-kind product that helps advisors reach throughout their Rolodex of financial services and create efficiencies," says John Stuart, BHWM's chief information officer. The firm, based in the heart of the city it's named for, was formed in 2010 by Margaret "Mag" Black-Scott, the former vice chairman of global wealth management at Morgan Stanley. Its goal is to hire advisors from wirehouses and RIAs and build a professional network serving high-net-worth and institutional clients. In return, BHWM offers its advisors an ownership stake, an increased payout and an independent platform with access to providers of institutional-level investment products.
BHWM believes Maestro will help attract new advisors and grow its business. Stuart slams current financial services software as "broken" and inadequate, and he isn't shy about touting Maestro as a disruptive product in the independent advisor space. "A lot of RIAs and asset managers have the same problem of working in an unorganized environment with multiple partners," he says. "We've developed tools and partners that can beat wirehouse prices and can leverage applications and products that are currently limited for advisors."
Intel has supplied BHWM with an identity access management technology that lets users pass through different network environments with one user name and password. Intel is looking for new markets in the post-PC world, and it developed this technology with hopes of becoming a player in the red-hot cloud space.
"We looked for market disruptors who are changing the landscape in their own industries and can make the best use of this solution," says Girish Juneja, Intel's director of application security and identity products. By Intel's reckoning, BHWM's concept was worth getting behind because it sees Maestro as an innovative "financial cloud."
Maestro is a tab-based navigation system that handles a host of functions ranging from document management and advisor compensation to practice management and client analysis. Stuart says it's customized so that advisors can select their own partner tools and services--including their own customer relationship management software, custodian tools, fixed income trading and financial planning software--in a cloud infrastructure while keeping the user experience seamless and branded for the advisor.
Elements of Maestro are already operational, and the complete rollout is expected in May. Initially, at least, it's an in-house service for BHWM advisors, but Stuart says he's spoken with other RIAs about licensing deals to use the product. He wouldn't say how much it cost to develop Maestro.
Juneja stresses that Intel isn't a licensing partner with BHWM, nor does its involvement with Maestro signal its intent to make "Intel Inside" a catch phrase in the advisory industry. "We're simply a tool provider and collaborator with Maestro," he says, adding that Intel has lent its identity access management technology to other companies in other industries such as Salesforce.com, where it enables its customer relationship management clients to access various cloud-based services.
Meanwhile, BHWM recently hired a 24-year industry veteran, Bart Albrigo, from Morgan Stanley, who gives the firm an office in Phoenix to go with an existing branch location in San Diego. Stuart says BHWM is poised to add other advisors in the coming months.